them," but scorn and despise them hereafter, as much as ever heretofore we have desired or loved them.

But I cannot, I dare not but in charity believe and hope, that by this time my readers are something weaned from their doating upon the present world, and desire to know how they may, for the future, get off their affections from it, so as to have this root of all evil extirpated, and quite plucked up from within them. I hope this is the desire of all, or at least of most of them; and therefore I shall now endeavour to show them how they may infallibly accomplish and effect it. In order thereto,

1. Let such persons often consider with themselves how unsuitable the things of this world are for their affections and love, which were designed only for the chieftest good. When God implanted the affection of love within us, he did not intend it should be the root of all evil, but of all good unto us; and therefore he did not give it us, to place it fondly upon such low and mean objects as this world presents unto us, but that we should love himself with all our hearts and souls. And surely he infinitely deserves our love more than such trash can do.

2

2. Let them remember that so long as they love money, they may pretend what they please, they do not love God, nor Christ; and by consequence they have no true religion at all in them.3

3. Let them often read and study our Saviour's sermon upon the mount, where he pronounces the

3 1 John, ii. 15; Matt. x. 37; Luke, xiv. 33; James, i. 27.

meek and low, not the rich and mighty, to be blessed; and weigh those strong and undeniable arguments which he brings, to prevail upon us not to take thought for the world, nor trouble our heads about the impertinent concerns of this transient life.1

4. Let them labour to confirm and strengthen their trust and confidence on the promises of God, who hath assured us, that if we love and fear him, he will take care of us, and provide all things necessary for us. This is the great argument which the apostle uses.3

5. Let them remember that they are called to higher things than this world is able to afford them the Christian is a high and heavenly calling; we are called by it, and invited to a kingdom and eternal glory, and therefore ought not to spend our time about such low and paltry trash as riches and wealth.

6. Let them get above the world, let their conversation be in heaven, and then they will soon look down upon all things here below as beneath their concern, Vilescunt temporalia, cum desiderantur æterna, said St. Gregory. He that seriously thinks upon and desires heaven, cannot but vilify and despise earth. O what fools and madmen do the blessed angels, and the glorified saints in heaven, think us poor mortals upon earth to be, when they see us busying ourselves about getting a little refined dirt, and in the meanwhile neglecting the most transcendant glories which themselves enjoy, although they be offered to us!

7. Let them never suffer the vanity of all things

1 Matt. v. 3, 4; vi. 24, 25, 26, 27, 28.

2 Matt. vi. 33.

3 Heb. xiii. 5, 6.

41 Thes. ii. 12.

here below to go out of their minds; but remember still, that get what they can, it is but vanity and vexation of spirit, as Solomon himself asserted upon his own experience, though he, be sure, had more than any of us are likely to enjoy. And let them not only often repeat the words, but endeavour to get themselves convinced thoroughly of the truth of them, which their own experience, duly weighed and rightly applied, will soon do.

8. Let it be their daily prayer to almighty God, that he would take off their, affections from the world, and incline them to himself, as David did, saying, Incline my heart to thy testimonies, and not to covetousness.'1

To all these means, let them add the constant and serious consideration of what they have here read, that the love of money is the root of all evil; assuring themselves, that if they will not believe it now, it is not long before they will all find it but too true by their own sad and woful experience, when they shall be stripped of their present enjoyments, and so turn bankrupts in another world, where they will be cast into prison without having a farthing to relieve themselves, or so much as a drop of water to cool their inflamed tongues.

By these and such-like means, none of us but may suppress the love of money in us, which is the root of all evil, and so avoid or prevent all the evil which otherwise will proceed from it. Whe

ther any of my readers will be persuaded to use the

means or no, I know not; however, let me tell them, that if they are loath to strive to get their affections deadened to the world, it is an infallible sign that they are too much in love with it, and that this

1 Psalm cxix. 36.

root and seed of all manner of evil remains in them; nor can it be expected they will be persuaded to any one duty whatsoever, until they are first prevailed upon to do this, even to mortify their lusts and affections to the things of this world. For so long as those are predominant within us, no grace whatsoever can be exerted, nor duty performed, nor any sin avoided by us.

But, oh, how happy would it be, if it should please the most high God to urge what I have here said home upon any, so as to induce them to set themselves seriously for the future to the eradicating or rooting up this love of money out of their hearts! What a holy, what a blessed, what a peculiar people should we then be, and how zealous of good works! Then we should take all opportunities of performing our devotions to almighty God: then we should have as many to the sacrament as at a sermon; then our churches would be filled all the week, as well as on Sundays, and the eternal God constantly worshipped with reverence and godly fear: then we should take delight in clothing the naked, feeding the hungry, and relieving the oppressed then there would be no such thing as cheating and cozenage, as lying and perjury, as strife and contention amongst us. But we should all walk hand and hand together in the work of piety, justice, and charity upon earth, until at length we come to heaven, where we shall be so far from loving and desiring money, that we shall account it, as it is, even dross and dirt; where our affections shall be wholly taken up with the contemplation of the chiefest good, and we shall solace ourselves in the enjoyment of his perfections for evermore.

VOL. II.

E

THOUGHTS UPON WORLDLY RICHES.

SECT. II.

TIMOTHY, after his conversion to the Christian faith, being found to be a man of great parts, learning, and piety, and so every way qualified for the work of the ministry, St. Paul, who had planted a church at Ephesus, the metropolis or chief city of all Asia, left him to dress and propagate it, after his departure from it; giving him power to ordain elders or priests, and to visit and exercise jurisdiction over them, to see they did not teach false doctrines. That they were unblamable in their lives and conversations. And to exercise authority over them, in case they were otherwise. And therefore it cannot in reason but be acknowledged that Timothy was the bishop, superintendent, or visitor of all the Asian churches, as he was always asserted to have been by the fathers of the primitive church, as Eusebius reports, saying, Tuó0εos τns ἐν Ἐφέσῳ παροικίας ἱσορεῖται πρῶτω τὴν ἐπισκοπὴν εiλnxévaι, that Timothy is reported to have been the first bishop of the province of Ephesus. Be sure he had the oversight of all the churches that were planted there; and not only in Ephesus itself, but likewise in all Asia, which was subject to his ecclesiastical power and jurisdiction.

And hence it is that the apostle St. Paul, in his first epistle to him, gives him directions how to

J Tim. i. 3.

2 Ib. v. 7.

3 Ib. v. 19.